The invention relates to a process and apparatus for blending at least two flows of fiber material, in particular spinning material, e.g. cotton, synthetic fibers, wherein the fiber flows are weighed individually over a predetermined distance, and subsequently united to a common fiber flow.
It has been known that the quality of the product of a processing machine in the spinning mill preparation is dictated by the condition of the fibrous web to be presented to the processing machine. In particular, quality is affected by the homogeneity of the fibrous web delivered to a processing machine, e.g. a card or the like. This is also true if two or more fibrous webs have to be blended with each other. It is important, in this connection, that the blending ratios are kept constant during the feeding of the processing machine. Very often, the moving fibrous web is weighed continuously during feeding in order to constantly control, by the weight, the equal amount of fiber material to be delivered. The blending of two fiber flows is realized by superposing them. The total layer is fed to an automatic blending machine or directly to a carding machine. This is not very practical and a reliable and perfect blending may not be achieved at all (U.S. Pat. No. 4,133,455).
It is an object of the present invention to substantially improve and better control by simple means the blending of two or more fiber flows of a different type and quality. Another object of the present invention is to obtain a uniform measuring of the fiber amount of the flow provided for blending.